From the age of 16, I started to practice golf more seriously. That is, I started playing outside of school holidays. During the summer of my 14th, 1959, I went down from 20 to 16 in disability; in 1960, from 16 to 10 handicap; in 1961, from 10 to 6; in 1962, from 6 to 3. Then my descent was slower! 1963, 3 to 2. During those summers, I remember that I took about 3 lessons of an hour with my dear teacher Raymond Garaïalde, that I played lots of friendly games, few doubles competitions that destroy you. swing, that I hit very few balls (big shots) outside of the lessons but that I practiced a lot of the small game: puttings, quarter of pitching wedge, and a lot of putting.
So here I am on the cusp of a career full of travels, meetings, experiences, disappointments, satisfactions. I will try to relate anything that may interest you.
As I said before I didn't play golf in Paris until I was 16 when realizing that golf was more and more fun for me and that I was quite good, Mom took me regularly take lessons with Raymond Garaïalde at La Boulie and start playing some junior and then women's championships.
It was during these lessons at La Boulie that an episode took place which decided my future golf and surely my career. During several lessons in a row, I regularly sent my ball out of the driving range on the right (this will surprise a lot of people who have known me since then because my fault is rather the sweater (probably Basque). That said there was a meeting between my father, Raymond Garaïalde, Jean his son and Jean-Claude Harismendy and me to know if it was advisable for me to bend the left wrist at the top of my swing to correct this slice. This idea came from Arnold Palmer who was one of the first to do this because, with a straight swing and classic grip, we had to find a way not to slice the ball. Today they all agreed to try this method with a maximum of pivot. result in very powerful shots for my height (1m 63) and a rather sweater ball which rolled a lot. Also the fact of having a right swing allowed me to easily lift the ball both at the drive, as for my long irons, in particular my iron 1 which helped me to win er many tournaments; I will especially name the British Championship where, just during the 18-hole final I used the 1 iron several times instead of the drive from the start because the course was narrow but not very long (Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland) .
Despite this little Parisian golfing activity, balanced by two and a half months at Chantaco in the summer, I continued my normal studies first at Cours Victor Hugo then, with my taste for Mathematics (this helped me count my shots later !) I ended up doing Math Elem at Lycée Janson de Sailly, following in the footsteps of my brothers but very lightly and passed my baccalaureate thanks to a very good mark in gym and in English! I had to make a choice at that time because the exams were still at the time of the championships but this choice was not difficult to make because my passion for sport in general, for travel, for the excitement of the championships was already well anchored in me. However, I managed to attend the Higher School of Interpreters and Translators for two years with my two languages, English and Spanish. And I advise all young golfers in the future to push their studies as much as possible because firstly it will relieve them of the stress of knowing that in case of failure or abandonment of their sports career they will have something to fall back on and also golf needs a lot of maturity and experience proves that there are very few great champions before 22 or 23 for women and 25 or 26 for men. This gives them plenty of time, organizing themselves well to carry out correct studies and their golf. They will be released at the end of these studies to devote 1 or 2 years of trying out as top golfers. I do not at all agree with pushing very young people who, in general, stagnate after reaching a good level and only sometimes catch their breath after several years and otherwise find themselves without a card to play for their future and are feel, and rightly so, very frustrated. Golf needs to be started young with good teachers and then like a fruit to be the best it can be should not be pushed but mature at its own speed with all the additional education possible.
The year I turned 19 was for me the big start of my career with, during the summer, two scores of 66 and one of 65 at Chantaco. I found that I was getting more regular thanks to a method Mom taught me: the temperature sheet. This consists of marking all the scores made (by entering all the putts) in friendly games or competitions in Medal Play and allows you to realize for yourself your regularity, your accidents, your periods of form or of poor form. . I recommend it to all players of a certain level (below 15). They will apply themselves more until the end of the games by hanging on even if they are playing poorly so as not to see an upward arrow and therefore never drop a hole which is so important in Medal Play.
That summer, Mum gave me the choice between playing the Girls' (UK Girls Under 19 Championship) and the British Ladies (the same championship but for all players). I say she gave me the choice but relatively so because I don't think she was very keen on giving up Chantaco in the middle of August!
Having said that, she was right to encourage me to go and play my first British Championship instead in Newcastle County Down where she herself in 1927, then Lally Segard had won the same championship.
I had the joy of seeing a Frenchwoman, Brigitte Varangot, win, despite having a rifle sore throat (but as Lally said to her over the phone: "You don't play golf with your tonsils!"). Also I was proud to beat Barbara MacIntire in one of the few rounds I played and to reach the quarter-finals which made me receive a telegram from my father saying, "Congratulations. You have already won two wheels of your car ”. The explanation of this missive was that he had promised to give me a car the day I won a championship because he considered that it was necessary to know how to control oneself to drive a car safely and that I would have done so. proof in the event of a victory. A few days later, I won the World Championship….
But before I even got to play in the World Championship team, I had to play a qualifier which remains, I believe, one of my worst golf memories due to the tension involved and playing against a friend, Odile Semelaigne. It was a very long 36 hole course played over two days, where after the first tied day I broke the 70 course record on the second day and qualified for the first World Championship. This had the advantage of making me know the course very well and of being nervous a month before the championship, which perhaps enabled me to endure the championship itself better.
So we come to a Championship that is so difficult to play, so hard to win but which remains for me a huge bag of moments of such intensity that they will be very difficult to forget. The main reasons are to play as a team and for your country with responsibility for each shot.
